Path of the Dark
by Cheetor640
Summary: *A prequel to my Canadian Digidestined series* The path of the dark is the road all evil beings take. It turns them into the creatures they become. This is the story of three, who are forced down this dark path.


Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon or anything associated with it. This is merely fan fiction written for fun.  
  
Here it is the prequel that you've all been waiting for. This marks my return to fanfiction.net after almost three weeks of lying dormant. I did manage to get some writing done while at university and this is the result, the prologue to the prequel. To those of you who have read my other two fics based around this series I hope you enjoy this one too, and to those who haven't I hope that you enjoy it to. Don't worry though, it is very possible for you to read this fic and understand what is going on without reading the other two. Actually, if you didn't read the other two because you don't like self- insertion fics this is a way for you to read my writing and read what you enjoy. This fic will contain almost no self- insertion (the parts that do are very brief). Part of it is my view on how the Digital world may have been created, so if you're interested in reading that read on. Well, I've noticed that the author's notes are getting pretty long so I'll just let you read the prologue. First one last note: Those who have read the matching fic to this prequel should recognize the narrator as Evan Chenk.  
  
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Path of the Dark  
  
Prologue: Fate's Paths  
  
A rainbow colored energy attack, the bringer of my destruction. Something part of me has always feared, and another always hoped for.  
  
My other half had put in his best efforts to stop it, but he only made it worse. The attack grew stronger, flew at us faster, and engulfed us in its fury. I was helpless to do a thing, as was my other half. All he could do was scream as the unspeakable pain ripped our body apart. I couldn't even do that, I couldn't even scream - even if I wanted to. I could do nothing but lay dormant, like I had for the past decade and a half, and wait for it all to end.  
  
No, actually there was something I could do. I could mock him. I had been waiting for this moment ever since he had my body.  
  
Oh what's wrong Evamon? I said privately to the being that had enslaved, mutated, and used my body. Have those weakling children gotten the better of you?   
  
He didn't respond. He was too wrapped up in the incredible pain he was experiencing. Unfortunately I knew how horrible that pain was, for I felt it too. His body was my own, his pain was my own, and as much as I hated it, his sick demented idea of pleasure was also my own. Fortunately, I wanted to experience this pain, this was pain that would end the pain I had experienced for the last fifteen years. It was nothing compare to that pain those long years had given me.  
  
During those years I was helpless. Forced to watch myself cause immense pain and suffering to millions of innocent creatures. As if that wasn't bad enough, I was forced go receive pleasure from such horrible acts. I feared that it would never end. I truly believed he was as strong as he always bragged he was. I feared that no one - including the Digidestined - would have the power to beat him. I felt that I would be forced to remain under this sick creature's control for eternity. Helpless to stop my own body from causing so much pain.  
  
However, as I now see the remnants of my body - now nothing but bits of data floating through the air - it seems that I was wrong. I've never been happier to be wrong in my life.  
  
I know that I am a few moments of away from death, but that didn't matter. After the last decade and a half, I no longer feared death. Instead, I welcomed it. It was an escape, an escape from the horrible position in life that fate had thrown upon me.  
  
My position placed by fate, one that I hated with a passion. Fate is truly ruthless, without a doubt a cruel mistress, and a ruthless master. No being that has walked earth or the Digital world could possibly understand her ways. She grants wealth to the undeserving, and strikes poverty onto those who deserve the opposite. Though she was also been known to do the just the reverse, rewarding the good, and punishing the evil. She picks and chooses, examining each individual, granting them their own separate destiny, with no rhyme or reason to it.  
  
She holds no bias to those she toys with. Race, gender, species, religion, and even age mean nothing to her. She can bless any living thing, or at the same time crush it like a bug, regardless of who, or what it is. From the tallest mountain, to the tiniest grain of sand, not even the non-living escape her firm grasp. Though despite the power she holds, it is not absolute. Fate's plans, known as destiny, are not set out in stone. It can be changed, but Fate is a clever one. Those who are aware of the ability to change destiny, which lack the power to do so, yet those who Fate has blessed with the power, lack the ability to they can avoid fate's tight grip. It is power that is ignorance.  
  
This may lead you to believe there is some reasoning towards Fate's workings, but just as you begin to think so, Fate throws another curveball that drops the dominoes, and adds chaos to order, for there are those who hold power, yet are still aware of their ability to change destiny. Why does Fate not strike them down? Does she not care? Or is there a reason for it? Is this part of her plan? A part of destiny? These are questions that can never be answered. Fate is nothing but a string of questions begging to be tugged, but too far out of reach to do so.  
  
For so long I have pondered these questions while trapped in the prison that is my own body. Questioning Fate, asking why she has pushed me down the path I have been doomed to walk; the path of the dark. A path filled with ominous twists and turns, with only the occasional beacon of hope when it occasionally intersects with the path of the light.  
  
I laugh at the thought of the path of Light now. It can hardly be considered good and pure like the name "Light" suggests. It is a term, which is supposed to represent, truth, justice, and all that is good. I don't see how this path can receive this name. It is riddled by too many intersections with the path of the dark to ever fit that definition. It is not as beautiful as one might think.  
  
The path towards light, the path of the good, of the hero, it is one filled with difficulties, obstacles, and temptation; not an easy path to travel. Those who choose this path must be strong, for it is those on the side of light who are responsible for controlling the dark. They must be part of that never-ending battle of light vs. dark. This battle is often plagued with personal loss, and along with it, personal struggle. It is this struggle that weeds out those unwilling to travel the path of light, deal with those hardships. Those that are not strong, and incapable of dealing with the emotional struggle are turned, and are doomed to the path of the dark. The path of light is also haunted my difficult decisions. Decisions that test its traveler's morals. Unfortunately, it is always the decision to do what is right, and follows the path of light, that is the hardest to deal with. That too leads to personal loss, and thus emotional struggle, once again weeding out the unworthy. There is responsibility, and obligation to deal with. Something that far too many are unwilling to bear. So why do so many begin this path early in life?  
  
It is because our cruel mistress Fate is a propagandist, she glorifies light's path. Those who walk down it are guaranteed valour, power, and praise beyond their wildest dreams for being such an incredible hero. Lastly, they are guaranteed success. Good guys always beat the bad guys, right? Then they all celebrate and laugh over their victory, while the extras - the neutral, sing their praises.  
  
It doesn't work that way in real life. Victory is never guaranteed, not to the good, nor to the bad. There are several instances along the path where the good fail miserably and suffer heavy losses. Even when good does win, the end result is usually the same as a defeat. Pain is still present, and responsibility remains piled heavily on their shoulders; it hardly seems like a victory at all.  
  
No, the path of the light is not the easy path that we are led to believe. Actually it is darkness that is relatively easy. Those who have strayed into the path of the dark are the ones who have it easy. There are no moral decisions to be made, nor responsibility towards the innocent. They merely concentrate on what is good for themselves. There are no moral struggles when you are only concerned about yourself.  
  
There is little, if any, emotional struggle. Those who have strayed onto this path have long forgotten to feel pain unless they are the ones suffering. They have no compassion, no conscience, they don't care about the pain that they are causing to others, as long as it doesn't effect themselves. The emotional pain and struggle cannot be present in such a cold environment.  
  
It is an easy path to travel, no pain, no responsibility, only the concern and interests of yourself. And though this is not a pleasant thing for most to admit, it is far easier for someone to concentrate on themselves than bothering themselves with others. Don't get me wrong, it is not always easy. The path of the dark is filled with pitfalls, and struggle, but compared to the responsibility of Light, they are easy to overcome.  
  
However, there are few who begin their lives walking this path. This is when, once again, Fate's propaganda comes into play. The path of the dark is not one that is given very good press. It is one that guarantees loss, those who travel along it are guaranteed to be chastised and hated. The majority of this path's traveler's are those who are too overwhelmed by the responsibility and pain that the path of light provides. They join the darkness, hoping to escape that responsibility. There is also a third path, the path of neutrality. The path followed by those who follow neither paths. However, path this is an invisible one. Those who walk along it do not realize that that are until they are faced with a serious threat. They believe they are walked down one of the other two paths. They believe they can act like a hero when the time comes, or that they are so bad that they will act that way in that situation. It is when they are finally thrown into a dangerous or intimidating situation that finally reveals to themselves - and others - that the path they have truly chosen. They run, they forgo all they thought they knew about themselves, and run like cowards.  
  
No, coward is not the right word at all. For the most part, it is out of good sense. There are cowards among them, but sometimes it takes a wise man to be a coward.  
  
While all this may be true, I have only spoken of the traveling of the paths. With the exception of the path of the neutral, the entire scenario does a back flip when the traveler's reach the paths' end.  
  
The path to light is a difficult one, filled with hardships, pain and emotional struggle, but that doesn't mean it's not all worth it. To those who prove worthy, and reach the path's end, they receive a reward that no material possession could equal. A sense of accomplishment. The idea that through all the difficulty and suffering, they stayed on the righteous path. A sense of pride knowing you have helped protect others, instead of concentrating on yourself. If you're extremely lucky, you may even receive praise. Though that is a rare occasion. The rewards are usually purely emotional, though those are sometimes the best of all.  
  
Yes, that's probably the corniest thing you've ever heard in your life. Like something from an after school special, but that doesn't mean it is not true. The path of the light is difficult, but it is worth the struggle.  
  
The path to darkness is the opposite. Perhaps it is the easy path to follow, but it does not offer such a rewarding ending.  
  
True, there are those who succeed following with path of the dark, and achieve everything they're cruel intentions have strived for. But it is a hollow achievement. Traveling down the dark path means taking the easy way out, doing everything for themselves, thus alienating others. In doing so they create a lonely and pathetic existence. They may claim that they are happy with their money, and power, but it is truly denial. No human being no matter how evil, how vile, strives for human companionship. It is not something that the dark path offers.  
  
I know this far too well, for I have been forced down the dark path myself, and have seen its end. It is not a pleasant one. Fate had a cruel plan indeed when she put together my destiny.  
  
The majority of those who walk the path of darkness are those who have chosen to. They are frustrated with the difficulties of the path of light, they have been believed into thinking it is the correct path to follow, or because it is all they know. Whatever the reason, it is usually their choice. I however had no choice of the path I had to walk.  
  
I began to walk the path of light, or possibly the path of neutrality - it doesn't matter, but was soon forced to walk down the path of darkness. My body ripped apart, and mutated to suit the needs of the dark force that had taken it from me. He has forced my life to become a walk down the path of the dark, and unlike most of which who walk it, I have a conscience. I felt guilt for the things I did, yet I could do nothing to stop it. A being of light forced to walk the path of darkness, it's torture, utter torture.  
  
Fortunately, that is no longer something I need to concern myself with. The Digidestined, have seen to that. They have destroyed my body, and along with it the evil force that had been controlling it for the last decade and a half, it is all over.  
  
The floating data within the air that had once been my mutated body now floats above them, the bringers of my destruction. Do I hate them for destroying me? Hardly. They may have destroyed me, but they have also freed me. Nor do I envy them as they celebrate below, not only the end of Evamon's life, but the fact their own lives still go on.  
  
No, I do not envy them because they will continue to live, while in a few moments I will die. At one point I did, when Evamon was still a part of me. But after living with the pain Evamon has caused me death is a small price to pay for peace. In fact, I thank them; for obvious reasons.  
  
I continue to watch them happily celebrating their lives, and as I do I notice that my data is not the only particles floating about the air beginning to disperse, there is much more. It takes me mere seconds to come to a conclusion. This new data of all the beings that Evamon has destroyed and absorbed into my body. With my body destroyed it now floats about independently, dispersing along with my own.  
  
No! I will not allow that to happen! My data may be dispersing, but it has become something that I welcome. I will not allow the innocents that my body has destroyed to die as well.  
  
Some of Evamon's strength still remained in my within what is left of my body. I had been using it to slow my data's dispersal, so I may watch the celebration from above, but now I could put it to better use.  
  
I tapped into the little bit of power Evamon had left me with and transferred it to the dispersing data of Evamon's victims. To Evamon and I this was an insignificant amount of power, but to those that we had killed it was an incredible amount. It would take much effort to stop the dispersal and repair their bodies, and that it didn't.  
  
Responding to the power I had provided the data began to gather, into a cloud of darkness. The cloud may have been dark, but that was only because it was the power of darkness that was being used.  
  
The dark cloud began to grow smaller as it began to rain beams of light towards the ground. Those beams soon took physical shapes; the bodies of all the innocents Evamon had destroyed. They were very disperse, various races of Digimon and humans. Evamon had no bias to those he destroyed, it was just as enjoyable for him to kill one race as it was another.  
  
It didn't take long for those celebrating on the ground to notice the rebirth of their fallen allies. Those that knew each other jumped into each other's arms, creating more need for celebration.  
  
I was unable to watch any more. With that little bit of strength sapped from my data I was forced to disperse even faster than before. It was only a matter of seconds until death would come, ending my long trek down the path of darkness. The journey that I have been forced to take. I am a rare case indeed, one of the few that has walked along the path of the dark without a choice in the matter. Those rare cases that are like me are those who were born upon it, and know of no other path to travel. To beings such as us the path is far harsher than to its other travelers. Those who have not had a choice but to walk the dark path, including myself, know how hard it can be.  
  
This is their story...  
  
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Well what did you think of the first instalment of the prequel? I know that this sounds a bit confusing now (especially to those that didn't read the original), but remember it's only the prologue and things will begin to get clearer (even if you didn't read the other two fics). Though most of you have probably have figured this out, here is a note for the literary challenged. When I speak of the being known as Fate, as well as the three paths, I speak completely in the metaphorical sense. There is no divine being called "Fate" within this fic, nor is there any path of Light, Darkness, or Neutrality, I'm simply speaking metaphorically so you, the reader, may understand what the narrator is saying easier. This fic is not going to be half as long as my other two, I am predicting it to be five or six chapters long at the least. It will cover the stories of three characters that have been forced down the path of darkness and their stories, showing events that happened before the original fic. Wow these author's notes are pretty damn long!  
  
Stay tuned for POTD Chapter One: Evan's story 


End file.
